Process of and apparatus for applying metal leaf



P 1929: w. o. SNELLING 1,728,635

PROCESS OF AND APPARATUS FOR APPLYING METAL LEAF Filed Jan. 20, 1926anoento'o:

Patented Sept. 17, 1929 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE WALTER ohsnnnmne, orALLENTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA rnocnss or AND APPARATUS FOR APPLYING METAL LEAFApplication filed'lanuary 20, 1926. Serial No. 82,563.

This invention relates to the packaging and applying of metallic leafand has for its principal object the provision of an improved package ofmetallic leaf, usually gold, and in the method of transferring the leaffrom the package tov the surface.

A further object of'the invention is the provision of means for reducingtoa minimum the quantity of precious metal ordinarily lost by excessiveoverlapping, wind currents, and crinklin'g.

The common practice at the present time is to package the extremely thinmetal in so-called books, the gold leaf, bronze leaf, silver leaf,aluminum leaf, or whatever thin metal is used being interleaved betweensheets oftissue paper which ordinarily are exactly the same size as themetal. In using the metallic leaf which I will hereafter refer to asgold, aljtho obviously I use all metals that can be' attenuated, theoperator" whether lettering a pane of glass or a book,

or an ornamental figure or what not, opens the book so as to expose asheet of the gold leaf, and ifthe operator is extremely skillful he canwith a flip and skillfulblowing lift the gold from the book and blowitto the desired point.

A much more common method and one which does not require anything likethe I skill required in blowing but which does' lead to much greaterwastage, is to use a high grade of soft camels hair brush and to drawthis quickly across the cheek and then apply the side of the brush tothe exposed a sheet of gold which will stick to the brush and can betransferredby the brush to the desired point to be gilded.

The extreme thinness of the sheets of gold makes it quite difficult tohandle the leaf by either of the methods described and loss of gold isvery considerable, and since no operator can accurately place the goldleaf, it

is the custom to overlap the sheets of gold on the surface to a verylarge extent to insure against having to fill in little cracks; in otherwords the labor cost is so much greater than the gold cost that it ischeaper to overlap excessively than to have to apply t extra smallpieces where the gold would not I torn into thin strips. reason forproviding a perforated back for quitehit if it were attempted toeconomize by making a very slight overlap.

It has been proposed heretofore to package metallic leaf in rolls inwhich the rolls were perforated but in every case the gold has beenpackaged on the inside of the roll ormorecorrectly the gold and supportare wound spirally but the support is always on theoutside of the roll.The purpose of the holes has always been for one of two rea sons. one tocause suction to the back of the roll to prevent adhesion of the metalleaf to the outside surface of the next inner layer of backing or,second, to produce the proper adhesion of the goldto the paper sothat'the gold and paper could together be I knowoffno other metallicleaf. I

lVhile I perforate my backing I do it for a totally differentporposeandIalso have much greater area ofholes' In'all former pa'ckings the areaof the holes was less than a twentieth of the area of the backingwhereasin accordance with the present invention the area'of the holespreferable varies from about one-tenth of the total area of the sheet toas much as one-half or even more, of the total area of the sheet, aconvenient ratio being 1 to 5, that is, the holes take up one-fifth ofthe .total area. This ratio is had when" the holes are asfar apart astheir diameters and not staggered. In

one of the figures I have shown a'modified backing whic h I. find veryconvenient. In

this backing the holes, inqvertical and horizontal rows, are as farapart as their diameters but the holes are staggered and hence I totalarea of the holes is double that shown in Figure 1.

Figure 8 is an elevation of a package roll of metallic lea-f, this beingthe preferred form of my invention.

Figure l is an elevation of a holder for the rolls while applying themetal in accordance with the method herein described.

Figure 5 is a plan of the holder shown in Figure 4.

In Figure lthe backing is 10, here a flat sheet with an unperforatedborder 11 but having thruout the center'of the sheet a number ofperforations 12 here shown as being as far apart both verticallyand horizontally as their diameters so that the area covered by the metallicleaf 15 is about fire times as great as the area of the holes beneathit. I can decrease the area of the holes and still have the inventionsatisfactory but it is better to have the holes not less than one-fifthof thetot al area covered by the gold leaf. In Figure 2 the onlymodification is that the holes are shown as staggered and since thereare now twice as many holes in a given area the ratio of holes tototalarea is as pi is to eight or roughly at 2:5; or expressed stilldifferently, the holes cover four-tenths of the total area. In using themodification shown in Figure 2 the hole area is so greatthat a verygentle stream of air directed against the back of the support 10 willinsure the transfer of the leaf from the backing to the proximatesurface to be metalize-d without loss.

In Figure 3 the package is in its most convenient form, a roll,denotedas a whole by the numeral 16, in which roll the continuous strip17 of metal is on the outside ofthe roll,

the perforated strip18 being wound on the inside ofthe roll ineontradistinction to all package rolls of leaf with which I am familiar.The obvious reason for this difference lies in the totally differentmethod of application; in all other packages the leaf is lifted from thepackage and transferred to the surface by some tangible means whereas inaccordance with my invention the transfer is thru an extremely smalldistance and the transferring means consists of air or gas only. Thesupporting sheet 18 has perforations in accordance with Figure l orFigure 2 or in any other desired manner just so that the total area ofthe holes is sufficiently great in proportion to the total area of theleaf as to insure the air being able to blow it off without loss.

In Figure 4 I have shown a frame suitable for holding the rolls ofFigure 3. In this device the frame as a whole is denoted 20 and at eachend thereisa removable shaft, one of which, 21, has a knurled head 22while the other shaft 23 is preferably plain. At

each corner of the frame 20 I have a small leg 25 intended to restagainst the surface to be gilded, here shown as a sheet of glass 27. Thelugs 28 each have at their free ends a small roller 29 so that themetallic leaf and backing may be guided from the roll 16 into closeproximity and into parallelism with the surface 27, provided the surfaceis plane.

The small gripping elements 30 detachably receive a pyramidal funnel 81to the apex of which is secured a rubber tube 32 having a soft portion33 so that the operator can place the portion 33 in his mouth and whenhe winds the strip of gold leaf into the exact position desired he canblow gently thru the tube 32 and transfer themetal 17 to the surface 27which naturally has already been prepared in the proper way as byvarnishing it so that the gold or other metal will adhere in the usualmanner. The tube may convey a gas in which case there should be a valvein the tube which obviously would not be needed if the gas to besupplied were merely air from the operators lungs.

Where the letters are quite small and the width of the foil roll isrelatively great the funnel may be detached and the tube 3233 usedwithout being fast to the frame (the funnel being omitted) and in thisway a very close economy ,ofgold may be secured, the adhesion of thegold to the backing being sufliciently great to enable it to be drawnfrom the surface where it has not been blown against the surface. In theordinary ,use of the device however, I make the width of the roll thesame as the standard for the present day box and I turn the knurledwheel 22 sufficient to expose as much of the d as I wish to use in whichcase the .3, ler 25) acts as the severing margin.

While I have shown the perforationsas being circular and of uniform sizethey naturally may be made of varying sizes, for example, theperforations in the center of the sheet or strip might well be smallerthan the perforations at the edge, or the holes may all be so arrangedthat the amount of air passing thru the perforations will bear a desiredrelationship to the preferred movementof the metal foil, but I do notclaim the specific arrangement or size of holes per se except as statedin the claims nor do I make any special claim as to the kind of foil for'while gold, substantially pure, is the metal usually handled there aretimes when it is very convenient to use other metals as for example,during the warwhen bronze leaf was used to a considerable extent becausethe government had requisitioned that metal to such an extent as to barthe use of solid bronze in ornaments.

lVhat I claim is:

1. In combination, apaclrage roll comprising a continuous perforatedsupporting strip adapted to support a metallic leaf on the outside ofthe strip so that as the package is unrolled on a surfacethe leaf willbe next to the surface, and means for rotatably supporting said roll toexpose an area of the strip in a plane parallel to the surface to begilded so that a stream of gas may be directed against the back of thestrip to drive the leaf from the strip to the surface.

2. In combination, a pair of spaced rollers having parallel axes, apackage roll one end of which is carried by each of the rollers, saidroll comprising a continuous strip of perforated supporting materialadapted to support a strip of metallic leaf.

, 3. In combination, a pair of spaced rollers having parallel axes, apackage roll one end of which is carried by each of the rollers, saidroll comprising a continuous strip of perforated supporting materialadapted to support a strip of metallic leaf, and means for directing astream of gas against a portion of the package roll between the tworollers.

4:. In combination, a pair of spaced rollers having parallel axes, apackage roll oneend of which is carried by each of the rollers, saidroll comprising a continuous strip of perforated supporting materialadapted to support a strip of metallic leaf, an open mouth vessel insubstantial contact with the back of the supporting strip, and means forconveying a gas to the vessel.

5. The art of applying metallic leaf to a surface which consists. inplacing the leaf upon a perforated support, bringing the support andleaf into suitable proximity to the prepared surface, and in blowing thebreath gently against the back of the support to transfer the leaf fromthe support to the surface.

6. The art of applying metallic leaf to a surface which consists inplacing the leaf upon a flexible perforated support, bringing thesupport and leaf into suitable proximity to the prepared surface, andblowing air against the back of the perforated support to transfer theleaf from the support to the surface.

7. The art of applying metallic leaf to a surface which consists inwinding a strip of metallic leaf upon a perforated support, rolling thesupport and leaf into a spiral with the leaf on the outside of the roll,un-

winding a portion of the roll to a plane parallel to and in closeproximity to the prepared surface to which the leaf is to be applied andin discharging a gentle stream of gas against the back of the perforatedstrip to transfer the leaf from the perforated support to thepreparedsurface.

8. The art of applying gold leaf to a plane surface which consists inpreparing the plane surface with an adhesive of the usual type, windinga strip of gold leaf on a perforated paper sheetinto a spiral roll withthe gold leaf on the outside of the roll, drawing the ing a continuousperforated strip adapted to support a metallic leaf, means forsupporting said roll so as to expose an area of the strip, and adetachable hood adapted to be positioned to cover the major portion ofthe exposed area of the strip on the side opposite the metallic leaf.

10. The device of claim 3 in which the gas directing means comprises adetachable hood, v

11. In combination, a rectangularframe,

a perforated strip adapted to support a sheet of gold leaf substantiallyparallel to the frame, a hood detachably secured to the strip.

"WALTER 0. SN tLLING.

frame at the side opposite the supporting In testimony whereof I affixIn signature.

